Working Hours and Overtime in Cambodia

Are you working too many hours per day? Find out what the law says about working hours and overtime.

What does the law say about working time?

The normal, legal working hours is 8 hours per day, or 48 hours a week. Employees can work up to 6 days per week and must get at least one full day (24 hours) off per week, and this should normally be a Sunday. Enterprises have the right to limit the working hour but not in contrary to what the law say. For example, start work at 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM, but give employees one hour in the afternoon for lunch per day. If employers want to ask the employees to work overtime, this overtime must be voluntary. Usually the overtime is limited to 2 hours per day.

How is the maximum number of hours a person should work?

The normal, legal working hours is 8 hours per day, or 48 hours per week. The maximum number of overtime is 2 hours per day. Therefore, the maximum number of hours a person should be employed, according to the law, is 10 hours per day.

What does law say about work on short notice?

Work on short notice means specific work that has to be completed within a short period; or work temporarily, intermittently or seasonally. A person who performs this type of work is called a casual employee. The law says it is not proper to use floating employees on a regular basis for long periods of time. And if they work more than 21 days per month for more than 2 months, they should be considered to be regular employees.

What is night work?

The labor law defines night work as work performed during the time interval 22:00 to 05:00 hour.

What does the law says about working at night?

Children, employees, laborers, or apprentices aged less than eighteen years cannot be employed to perform night work in any enterprise.

If employees finish work at night, the employer must provide them with a place to sleep or transport home.

The law is unclear as to the pay rates for night work. The current practice in the garment, shoe and textile industries is to pay both normal and overtime work at night at 200% of the normal day rate.

What is said in collective agreements about night work?

Existing collective agreements follow the requirements set in the law.

What is a lunch break or meal break?

The Cambodian labor law does not define this term. Universally, a lunch break or meal break is a time for employees to have a meal that is regularly scheduled during the workday. It is usually unpaid time and can last from 30 minutes to 1 hour.

For a typical daytime job, this is lunch, but this may vary for those with other work hours. It is not uncommon for this break to be unpaid, and for the entire workday from start to finish to be longer than the number of hours paid in order to accommodate this time.

What says the law about breaks?

The Cambodian labor law does not specify about lunch breaks.

What is said in collective agreements about breaks?

In collective bargaining agreements for the hotel industry, it specifies that normal daily working hours are 8 hours per day including, over a span of nine (9) hours, one unpaid hour for meal breaks. In addition, a large, clean room (Canteen) that can seat approximately 50 people with air conditioning, hot and cold water for employees to use in their break time must be set up. The allocation of working days is 6 days per week.

For garment factories, it does not mention the duration of lunch break directly but it states that normal working hours is 8 hours per day, starting from 7 am to 11: 55 am and then commencing at 13:00 to 15:55, which means that workers have 1 hour lunch break. Factories must provide employees with a restaurant, in which employees can have meals indoors instead of eating outside. The factory shall also have an open garden for workers for eating and leisure during breaks.